Jonathan Dayton

The husband and wife directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris worked so well together for so long that the two might as well have melded into one directing entity. Their first feature effor...
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Jonathan Winters dead at 87

By:
WENN.com
Apr 12, 2013

Veteran actor and comedian Jonathan Winters has died at the age of 87. He passed away of natural causes in Montecito, California on Thursday (11Apr13).
Born in Dayton, Ohio, Winters served two years in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II before enrolling at Kenyon College, where he landed a job as a radio DJ and perfected his stand-up routine.
Winters went on to record a number of comedy albums and became a regular on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. He also hosted his own TV variety show in the late 1960s.
He is perhaps best known for his role as Mearth in the hit TV series Mork & Mindy, but his other small screen credits include Hee Haw, David Rules, Hot Dog, The Hollywood Squares, The Dean Martin Show and The Twilight Zone.
In 2008 he was presented with the TV Land Award from Robin Williams, who previously called Winters one of his idols.
On the big screen, Winters appeared in over 40 films, including It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming and The Flintstones. He also provided the voice of Papa Smurf in the animated 2011 Smurfs movie and he reprised his role for the sequel, which is due to be released this summer (13).

"You can make her do anything you want… For men everywhere tell me you're not going to let that go to waste."
It's a chilling turn of phrase that Chris Messina's character Henry utters when he meets the woman that his brother Calvin wrote into being. Calvin played by Paul Dano is a frustrated writer but more than that a writer who published to great acclaim at a young age who has yet to do anything since. He begins writing a character named Ruby Sparks and as he falls in love with his creation he can't stop writing. It's exhilarating and addictive. Played by Dano's real-life girlfriend Zoe Kazan Ruby Sparks is a one-dimensional male fantasy a cutesy young woman on roller skates… until she appears in his kitchen one morning. Calvin quickly learns that even though he can control her with a few taps on his typewriter Ruby has an ever-changing will of her own.
Ruby Sparks is written by Kazan with the sort of bite that a trailer can't be tied up with a neat little bow. There is gorgeous California sunshine an airy house in a hip part of Los Angeles the trendy Figaro café where Calvin finds out that other people can see Ruby and a delightful interlude with Calvin's hippie mother and stepfather played by Annette Bening and Antonio Banderas. As gorgeous and gleeful and wide-eyed as Ruby is and as much as Calvin adores her the relationship develops and changes even as he succumbs to the temptation to rewrite her. Calvin an essentially insecure man unravels and becomes more and more of a controlling jerk until he's faced with the truth of how far he's willing to go to keep Ruby from leaving him. It becomes sad and frankly disturbing with an admirably raw performance by Kazan that lingers.
While Ruby Sparks serves as an interesting commentary on wish fulfillment in fiction writing its juicy subtext is far more important. Under the surface the film delves into how we're culpable for the way we see our lovers and how we want to change them or make them something they're not. Eventually Calvin has to decide whether or not he wants to continue editing Ruby to fit his specifications; he has to face that that means about him as a person and as a man. It's Pygmalion with a feminist twist. We see plenty of dumb romantic comedies about women tricking men into changing but it seems like there's an endless parade of indie films written by men about loveably girly women whose only reason for being is to act as a catalyst for the man's emotional growth. While this is absolutely true in some ways for Ruby and Calvin there's a meat to the script and Kazan's performance that makes "Ruby" rise to the top. There are plenty of words (or that overused phrase) we can use to describe Ruby but in the end Calvin wrote those traits into her and these are details that Ruby shucks off as she grows. Similarly as women grow up we learn we can (and have to) stop performing tricks to become the person our significant other wants or sees in us.
Without revealing too much the end of Ruby Sparks could be read a number of ways. On one hand it is a bit of a misstep that undermines the general thrust of the story but it could also be seen as simply a happier more hopeful ending. Romantics will find it satisfying but those hoping for Ruby's full emancipation might find it lacking.
This is the first film for directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris since 2006's Little Miss Sunshine and although they have much in common — including Dano — Ruby is a darker unrulier movie. The idea of movie-goers being led in to see Ruby because of Faris and Dayton's names or because of the trailer is delightful because they're going to get a little bit of a different experience than they're prepared for.
[Full disclosure: I interviewed Zoe Kazan for a profile in the August/September issue of BUST magazine.]

The directors of Little Miss Sunshine are redelivering cinematic glory with the upcoming He Loves Me, about the most despicably relatable frenzy for people in my line of work: writer’s block. Aside from an already compelling theme and winning directorial team of Valeria Faris and Jonathan Dayton, this movie has brought in a pretty impressive cast:
Paul Dano, Little Miss Sunshine’s silent nihilist will lead the way, along with Annette Bening (last year’s Best Actress contender for The Kids Are All Right), Elliott Gould (for the older crowd: M*A*S*H; for the younger: Monica’s and Ross’ dad), Zoe Kazan (It's Complicated), Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood), Steve Coogan (Alan Partridge), Chris Messina (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and Antonio Banderas (you know who that is). Word has it that The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi is in consideration for a part as well.
So, this movie seems to have something for everyone: the old, the young, the hip, the romantic, the nihilistic, the vampirious, the British... and with the duo that cranked out the shockingly good Little Miss Sunshine at the wheel, I'd call this a project with incredible promise.
Source: Collider

The directors of Little Miss Sunshine, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, haven’t been up to much since their little indie darling made a butt load of money. In fact, they haven’t helmed a feature since. That’s about to change as they have signed on to direct He Loves Me.
Besides boasting the same behind-the-scenes team that made Sunshine, He Loves Me also boasts Paul Dano, the standout star of the picture (well, he’s almost the stand out. Abigail Breslin definitely did her part getting nominated for an Oscar and Steve Carell showed some dramatic gravitas as well) who will be starring. To make things even further incestuous, Dano’s girlfriend Zoe Kazan will be co-star. Oh yeah, she’s writing the damn thing too.
He Loves Me follows a struggling young novelist (is there ever any other kind of novelist in films?) who is struck by writers block. He’s encouraged to “write the woman he thinks will love him” and - surprise, surprise - he wills that woman into existence (Kazan). It's an Interesting premise and, considering Dayton and Faris have turned down many lucrative deals since Sunshine, this one must be worth their time...and ours.
Source: LA Times

Paul Rudd is onboard, and Zach Galifianakis is in negotiations, to star for Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton in Paramount comedy Will.
The film is based on a Demetri Martin pitch about an ordinary guy who lives in a world where people's lives and destinies are being written by scribes in Heaven. The man wakes up one day to find that his writer has decided to no longer draft his life, and he must go about his day unscripted.
DreamWorks bought the project in 2006 and Paramount took control of it after the companies split in 2008.
Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's Gary Sanchez is producing.
This will mark Faris and Dayton's first directing effort since 2006's Oscar winner Little Miss Sunshine.
Galifianakis and Rudd are appearing together in Paramount's upcoming Dinner for Schmucks, a remake of French comedy Le Diner de Cons.
Story: http://power.networksolutions.com/index.html

Steve Carell and Tina Fey, who will be seen together in next year's Date Night, are loosely attached to star in Mail-Order Groom, a Warner Bros. comedy.
According to reports, Bad Santa scribes Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have come on board to do a light rewrite of the script, which was originally written by Robert Carlock and Scott Silveri from a story based on an idea by Fey's husband, Jeff Richmond, along with Carlock and Silveri.
The story follows a naive single woman who can't find love and ends up with a mail-order husband from Eastern Europe. The film is expected to be in the vein of Borat and in the tone of 30 Rock, according to Pajiba, which also says Warners has the project tentatively lined up to shoot in April.
The film has no director but The Los Angeles Times reports that the studio's shortlist includes Jay Roach, Richard Linklater and Jonathan Dayton/Valerie Faris. The latter pair directed Carell in Little Miss Sunshine while Linklater directed the Ficarra/Requa-scripted Bad News Bears remake.
The only window for Carell and Fey to shoot would be the hiatus of their NBC TV shows, The Office and 30 Rock, respectively, notes The Hollywood Reporter. Fey wraps Rock in late March. Carell is currently filming Dinner for Schmucks during his winter hiatus.
Carell's Carousel Prods. and Fey's Little Stranger are producing Groom.
Story: http://power.networksolutions.com/index.html

Martin Scorsese and Bill Condon are among the five moviemakers who will fight for this year's Directors Guild of America top prize.
The filmmakers, who shot The Departed and Dreamgirls, respectively, join Babel director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Stephen Frears (The Queen) and Jonathan Dayton &amp; Valerie Faris--the husband-and-wife team behind Little Miss Sunshine--on the newly announced shortlist.
The winner of the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2006 will be announced at the organization’s 59th Annual Awards Dinner on Feb. 3.
Of the 58 times the DGA Award has been handed out, only six winners did not go on to pick up the Best Director Oscar.
COPYRIGHT 2007 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All Global Rights Reserved.

The Queen is the big winner at this year's New York Film Critics Online Awards, taking home five honors for the Helen Mirren-starring drama.
Mirren plays British monarch Queen Elizabeth II during the aftermath of the 1997 death of Diana, Princess of Wales in the movie, directed by Stephen Frears.
The film has been awarded Best Picture, Best Actress for Mirren, Best Supporting Actor for Michael Sheen, Best Director for Frears and Best Screenplay for Peter Morgan.
Meanwhile, former American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson tied with Catherine O'Hara for the Best Supporting Actress accolade with their performances in Dreamgirls and For Your Consideration, respectively.
Forest Whitaker has been named Best Actor for playing Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, while the cast of Little Miss Sunshine picked up Best Ensemble Cast.
Other winners included Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris for Best Directing Debut, Happy Feet for Best Animated Feature, An Inconvenient Truth for Best Documentary and Pan's Labyrinth for Best Foreign Language Picture.
COPYRIGHT 2006 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All Global Rights Reserved.

The Hoover household is something of an insane asylum but nobody would ever knowingly hurt anyone except him- or herself. Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a deluded optimist and motivational speaker who only motivates himself. His wife Sheryl (Toni Collette) unwittingly reinforces his behavior by placating him and hiding her frustration. Sheryl’s dad (Alan Arkin) an acid-tongued old-timer who’s hooked on heroin and brother (Steve Carell) a gay suicidal Proust scholar who is the epitome of the “crazy uncle” cliché are also aboard the crazy train. Richard and Sheryl’s son Dwayne (Paul Dano) is a Nietzsche follower who only communicates with his family by writing. Then there’s the daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) the family’s glue. All she wants is to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant so the Hoovers all load their baggage onto the family’s VW bus--which barely runs--and embark on a long bumpy ride to California.
If only there were a Best Ensemble Oscar Sunshine’s cast would…get snubbed for being too quirky but still. And by constantly upstaging one another the actors may have further hurt their chances. It is this no ego effect however that is central to the movie’s theme and success. While all the performances are nothing short of superb the three showstoppers are Collette Carell and Breslin. Aussie Collette continues her brilliantly understated career with this turn as a well-meaning Everymom who ultimately only wants to nurture her family. Carell perhaps the only one with a fighting chance at an Oscar nod shows us why he’s really a megastar: he can act with a complete about-face from his usual roles as evidence. (Lest we forget this is a guy who up until recently was a fake-news correspondent!) And Breslin (Signs) is simply an amazing young talent who provides all the wide-eyed caffeine the film needs and then some but does so with precious maturity. It’s as if she inspired the title. There’s a quirky behind-the-scenes story too: Sunshine’s directors--plural--are married to one another! Husband-and-wife duo Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are widely known music-video directors but not the type who would make their big-screen transition with something like say Torque; thankfully they chose substance over style. If not for these very gifted directors Sunshine could’ve come unhinged where so many pedestrian “dysfunctional family” indies do: by turning the characters each with a laundry list of defining quirks into caricatures. But thanks in equal parts to the direction acting and flawless script (from first-timer Michael Arndt) there is so much truth to each character. Most notable though is the linear nature of the story; these directors clearly don’t need swooping twists to convey their themes and profundity and that is rare and remarkable. The climax with which it all culminates can only be described as unforgettable.

Title

Won six MTV Video Music Awards for Smashing Pumpkins’ "Tonight Tonight"

Established production company Bob Industries, with husband Jonathan Dayton

Directed episodes of the HBO show "Mr. Show with Bob & David"

Feature directing debut with the indie hit, "Little Miss Sunshine" a dramedy about a dysfunctional family's road trip to a child beauty pageant; earned a nomination from the Directors Guild of America

Directed commercials for GAP, Target, Apple Computer, and ESPN

Produced the documentary feature "The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years"

Produced music videos for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys and R.E.M.

Summary

The husband and wife directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris worked so well together for so long that the two might as well have melded into one directing entity. Their first feature effort, "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006), a quirky, but emotionally resonant black comedy about a dysfunctional family who go on a road trip to bring their youngest member (Abigail Breslin) to a competitive kiddie beauty pageant, gained the former award-winning commercial and music video directors widespread notoriety, and several award nominations. Prior to their feature debut, Dayton and Faris were the go-to team to direct music videos for bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins and R.E.M. On the commercial side, Dayton and Faris were used by such corporate behemoths as Mercedes, Miller Lite and Apple, Inc. But it was the surprise summer success of the low-budget "Little Miss Sunshine" that vaulted them into the Hollywood spotlight, turning the couple into a highly sought after directing team.